Watching this game again and you forget how stacked this Blazers team was. They were the only team equipped with containing Shaq and they did a great job in this series. They had a bunch of savvy wings in the post in Bonzi, Pippen and Steve Smith. I remember they always tried to work Kobe down there and try to get him in foul trouble. Pippen was such a pest defensively, knowing the triangle in and out causing him to completely muck up the Lakers offense.

When it came down to it tho, the best player in the biggest game in the Shaq/Kobe era lakers was the young 22 year old. He was dominant defensively, on the boards and closed the game out. One of his best all around games ever

I may be wrong, but I doubt it. It feels like Kobe more times than not got the best of if not dominated Pippen in their matchups even as young and relatively inexperienced as he was.

oh no doubt, I wasn't really looking to Pippens individual defense as much as his ability to read our sets and making sure Shaq had no space to operate. Shaq was the 1st and 2nd option that year with Kobe being so young so the Blazers paid almost no attention to Harper or Walker

That was an amazing game. One of my favorite Laker memories. The rest of the family left the room and gave up. I hung in there and was rewarded with a comeback for the ages against a team that was pretty incredible in their own right. That Portland roster was crazy deep.